Do hackers know your favorite passwords?

Privacy experts tell you to make up a new password for each time you register for a new digital service. That’s good advice. And many websites and services will tell you if the password you enter is strong enough to deter hackers.

But wouldn’t it be good to know if that new password was already in the hands of hackers?

That’s the goal of the people who developed PasswordPing. It’s a new type of password strength meter that will rate the strength of your chosen password and also check it against a database of passwords that have been compromised.

PasswordPing says it has catalogued more than 1.5 billion exposed passwords along with common words and surnames which typically appear in the password cracking databases used by hackers.

Developers can use the PasswordPing API code to replace widely-used strength meters on a website or in a mobile application. The code is available in a branded free version that will look up 1,000 password entries per month. An unbranded version that supports a higher level of usage is available for a fee.

For pricing and more details, visit the PasswordPing website and follow @passwordping on Twitter.

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.